


You and me, babe, how about it?

by bythunder



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Romeo and Juliet References, School Plays
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-24
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-05-28 02:02:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15038249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bythunder/pseuds/bythunder
Summary: It had seemed like such a brillant idea a month ago. Theon had told him that he’d overheard the girls talking about auditioning for the school play and Robb, completely enthralled by his crush, thought that it would give him a good excuse to spend more time with Jeyne. That was before the cast list went up. It was one thing to audition when he was expecting a minor role in the background, or perhaps to be on crew like Jon, but there it was in black and white ink, hung on the drama room door for all to see.Romeo Montague   — Robb StarkJuliet Capulet   —   Jeyne Westerling





	You and me, babe, how about it?

**Author's Note:**

> for [asoiafrareparis week](https://asoiafrarepairs.tumblr.com)  
> Day One - Fake dating (fake dating here meaning 'playing characters in a relationship')

_“O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; they pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.”_

_“Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.”_

_“Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.”_

**_“_ ** _Then have my lips the sin that they have took.”_

_“Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again.”_

“Stop, stop, stop! Do it again, from the top. Come on, Stark. Juliet’s supposed to be the love of your adolescent life, not your grandmother! Kiss her like you mean it.”

Robb flushed scarlet under Tormund’s direction. It had seemed like such a brillant idea a month ago. Theon had told him that he’d overheard the girls talking about auditioning for the school play and Robb, completely enthralled by his crush, thought that it would give him a good excuse to spend more time with Jeyne. That was before the cast list went up. It was one thing to audition when he was expecting a minor role in the background, or perhaps to be on crew like Jon, but there it was in black and white ink, hung on the drama room door for all to see.

**Romeo Montague   — Robb Stark**

**Juliet Capulet** **—   Jeyne Westerling**

And suddenly, Robb was spending way more time with her than he ever expected to, and worse than that —or better, depending on your point of view— was the fact that he had to _kiss her_ . A lot. In front of all their friends, and come opening night, in front of their families. And he was supposed to do that _without_ letting her know that he was totally and hopelessly in love with her.

“Sorry, Mr. Giantsbane.”

“It’s okay, Robb,” Jeyne whispered to him as they took their marks. “You can really kiss me, I don’t mind.”

A part of him was very pleased to hear that, _she said I could kiss her!_ But that excitement was reigned back by the fact that it wasn’t really him she wanted to kiss. It was _Romeo_ who was supposed to be kissing _Juliet_. This was all fiction. Just playing pretend.

“I, uh, I’ll try to do better, Jeyne,” Robb promised.

However, when he got to the line, he chickened out again, giving Jeyne nothing more than an innocent peck, much to the annoyance of their director.

“A room full of teenage hormones and yet, I cannot get any sexual tension out fo you kids. You’re killing me. Romeo, Juliet, take a break. Where is my Mercutio?”

“I am so sorry, Jeyne, really. I don’t know why this is so hard,” Robb said as he walked with Jeyne backstage.

“Don’t worry about it. You’re not a theater person, you haven’t had to do this before. It takes some getting used to, kissing strangers.”

“Have, uh, have you had to kiss a lot of strangers?” he asked her. He knew that Jeyne liked theater a lot, she’d been doing drama since freshmen year and she started doing summer stock plays when she was a kid. He’d even heard her talk to Mr. Giantsbane about going to college to persue acting as a career. But, now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure what kind of shows she’s done. He’d never paid any attention to the school’s theater program before his crush on Jeyne started ealier this year.

“Not _a lot_. But a few. Three or four, I think,” she said with a shrug.

“How— how do you get used to it?”

“You just have to do it. It helps if you can really get into character, you know, just get caught up in the feelings, but, that doesn’t work for everyone. Even some professional actors aren’t method actors like that.”

“Okay, so… if the whole ‘being a good actor’ thing doesn’t work, then what? I really— I want to be good.” _For you._

Jeyne hummed a moment as she thought before saying, “Last year, I did _The Sound of Music_ at the community theater. I was Leisl and the guy who played Rolfe, he was terrible. We didn’t get along at all. So the kissing was… awkward, to say the least. So we decided that there would be no kissing in rehearsals. Only during live performances.”

“No!” Robb shouted, a bit too enthusiastically. “I mean, I— I would rather be able to get this down now. Before opening night. Otherwise, I’m afraid I’ll freeze and ruin the whole show.”

“You won’t ruin the show,” Jeyne said, reassuring him with a soft smile. “You’re better at this than you think you are.”

“Thanks, Jeyne.” He was sorely tempted to ask if her could kiss her now, _for practice, just for practice_ , thinking that it would perhaps be a little easier now that they weren’t in front of an audience, but the moment is lost when they hear Tormund begin to shout.

“Those are _swords_ , Greyjoy, not lightsabers! I swear to god, if you break another one—”

“I better go run interference. Thanks for the acting advice.”

 

* * *

 

This was the most frustrating production Jeyne had ever been apart of. And it’s not because Theon Greyjoy kept picking swordfights with everyone and everything, nor because Joffrey Baratheon insisted on overacting Tybalt’s death scene, no matter how many times Tormund told him to tone it down. No, the frustrating part of this all was kissing Robb Stark.

Not that he, himself, was objectionable in any way. Quite the opposite. He was stunningly gorgeous. Kind, too, and funny. And _that_ was the problem. Jeyne had feelings for her co-star. Gooey, butterflies-in-the-stomach kind of feelings. She had to be careful, not to get too carried away when he kissed her. _When Romeo kissed Juliet_ , because Robb wasn’t kissing _her_ , no. This was all just pretend. Because Jeyne is not the kind of girl Robb would be interested in. He played football, he dated cheerleaders, the fact that he even auditioned for the school play… it was baffling. Slumming with the theater kids. Privately, Jeyne thought he must’ve lost some kind of bet.

Until it turned out that he was good at this. And he genuinely seemed to enjoy being here. He never complained, even when rehearsals went late, and more than once, she caught him studying his lines in between classes. He was really taking this seriously.

 _“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. A-arise, fair sun, and…_ and kill the envious moon, dammit— _”_

“Robb?” She found him sitting outside the drama room during their lunch period, script open on his lap as he ran through his lines for the balcony scene. “Hey, what- what are you doing here?”

“Jeyne! Hi- uhm, hi. I was just— I’m not off book for my monologue yet. I wanted to ask Tormund for help, but, he’s out right now.”

“Oh. I could help you. If you wanted,” Jeyne offered.

“Really? That’d be great, thanks.”

“Of course.” Jeyne sat on the floor beside him and pulled his script between them. They sat that way all through lunch hour, going over the lines until Robb got them just right. It was so nice to spend time with him like this, one-on-one. They’d never really had the chance to do that before. Normally, they were surrounded by their friends and castmates and, well, this change was good. Although, it was really hard to suppress her crush when they were alone like this, quiet, _intimate_ , exchanging vows of love…

Thank god for the bell, otherwise she might’ve done something stupid, something like suggest that maybe they ought to practice _that kiss scene again_.

“Shoot, I gotta get to Calc,” Robb said as he stood up, shoving his script into his backpack. “Thank you so much, Jeyne. I feel a lot better about that monologue now.”

“Wait!” Jeyne shot up after him, reluctant to let him go. “I, uh, if- if you still need some help, I’d be glad to run lines with you sometime. Maybe we could go get coffee or something?”

For a moment, he doesn’t respond and Jeyne thought she’d blown it. She’d come on too strong, come across as _weird_. But then, slowly, a smile spread across his face. “I’d love to.”

 

* * *

 

By the time opening night rolled around, Robb was feeling pretty good. Not great, he was nervous, more nervous than he’d been before the football state championship last year. He had hardly eaten anything, spent all day muttering his lines under his breath. This _had_ to go well, he’s worked hard at this, he really has, and not just for him, but _for Jeyne_. He wanted to be a worthy Romeo to her Juliet, because she deserved that much.

“Lookin’ good in those tights, Robbie,” Theon cackled and smacked him on the back. “Here I thought theater would help us pick up chicks. My bad. Although, it has gotten _you_ a fair bit of action, eh?” He nudged him sharply in the ribs and nods to where Jeyne was finishing up her makeup.

Robb elbowed Theon back. “It’s not like that.”

“Who are you trying to fool? It’s me. I know you’ve got the hots for her.”

 _“Shut up, Theon_ ,” Robbed hissed as Jeyne crossed over to them. “Hey, Jeyne. You look… really nice.” A stupid thing to say, _stupid_ , because he’s seen her in her costume dozens of times already, just in the past week alone. But she’s just so _pretty_ and irrationally, she pulls off that renaissance dress, like she was born to that period. _Like a real princess…_

“You look good too, Robb,” Jeyne said, with a faint blush around her cheeks. Or was that the makeup? He couldn’t quite tell. “Are you ready for your first show?”

He nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, yeah, I am.”

“Alright, places, people!” Tormund hollered. “Time to get this show on the road!”

“I better go,” Robb said. Before he moved, though, he embraced Jeyne in a quick hug. “Good luck.”

“Oh, no! In theater, you never say ‘good luck’. It’s ‘break a leg’.”

“Break a leg. Got it.”

She grinned at him and blew him a kiss before sending him off to his place for the first scene.

The rest of the performance passed in a blur. Robb was fairly certain he passed through it without screwing up too badly. And he shouldn’t have feared his monologue after all, because saying words of love, speaking romantic poetry to Jeyne, that came easily. _It is my lady, O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were!_ Who knew a four hundred year old play could be so relatable? If only Robb had half the courage and passion of Romeo and confess his own love so boldly.

Sooner, sooner than felt possible, Jeyne was above him while he lie prone on the stage, dead by poison. She kissed him with tears in her eyes — _real tears, god, she’s good_ — before she slipped the dagger from his sheath and plunged it into her chest, collapsing on top of him. It was hard to remain still like that, to play dead, for the rest of the play, not when he desperately wanted to kiss her again.

When it came to the curtain call, he couldn’t help himself. With Jeyne standing beside him as they took their bows, the urge struck him and blame it on the heat of the lights or the enthusiastic applause, and he pulled her to him and planted one on her lips. In his head, the crowd cheered louder at that, yet simaultaneously died away, and somewhere outside of himself, he heard a distinct wolf whistle that he knew came from Theon.

But none of that matters so much as the fact that Jeyne took his face between her hands and kissed him back. She did, she _really did that_. Robb wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her off the ground to spins in a celebratory circle. He only stopped when someone whacked him on the backside with a prop sword.

Jeyne was grinning and red-faced when they separated. “Wh-what was that?”

“I just wanted to kiss you once. As Robb, not Romeo.”

“Only once?”

“Or more, if you let me.”

“I’d let you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and feedback are appreciated!


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